ISACB Industry Partnerships

03/07/2017

ISACB Industry Partnerships: Application of Cardiovascular Research

The ISACB takes very seriously our commitment to APPLIED cardiovascular biology, and our industry sponsors are critical to the effectiveness with which our Society can meet this important mission. As such, the Executive Council of ISACB has authorized a new initiative to enhance the critical input of industrial participants on the Society and its direction. This authorization consists of an “Industry Working Group” (IWG), which will address critical issues in applied cardiovascular biology faced every day by industry scientists, engineers, medical technology developers and innovators. This Working Group will work with other Committees of ISACB to allow frequent interaction with scientists, engineers, and clinicians investigating and testing cutting edge products to treat cardiovascular disease.

Michael F. Wolf will lead the effort to establish the ISACB IWG. Mr. Wolf is a Senior Principal Scientist and Technical Fellow at Medtronic Inc. Mr. Wolf received B.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) and an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (UMN). At the UWM and UMN his studies focused on biomaterials science, pathobiology, and endothelial cell seeding. Now approaching his 30th year at Medtronic, Mr. Wolf has worked comprehensively in the area of characterizing and improving how blood- and vascular tissue-contacting devices/materials interact with the body. This work has covered device areas such as CPB equipment, mechanical heart valves, vascular grafts, cardiac and neurovascular stents, cardiac pacing and hemodynamic sensors, surface modifications, and LVADs. While much of his work has involved in vivo preclinical evaluations, this work also includes significant in vitro investigations using alternative and predictive human blood models. For more than a decade, Mr. Wolf has also been active in development of standards for medical devices. He has served as subject matter expert, chairperson, and convenor (presently) to the ISO TC/194 working group focused on ISO 10993 Biological evaluation of medical devices - Part 4: selection of tests for interactions with blood. Mr. Wolf is an inventor on eight patents and author or co-author on more than twenty peer-reviewed publications and four book chapters.

If you are an industry representative, please let us know if you would be interested in having your Company officially join ISACB and provide members on our vital, new IWG. Together, we can form the partnership helps to solve current problems in cardiovascular science, biology and develop future therapies and diagnostics.